Los Reyes

I'm fortunate to live in a country that thoroughly appreciates celebration. Being a traditionally Catholic country (they even more or less escaped that pesky Reformation) Christmas is celebrated and no one works. However, and I think they did this just because of their profound appreciation of celebrations, they also celebrate Los Reyes on the 6th of January, and again no one works and everyone celebrates. This is the day in Spain when families exchange gifts, although now some families also exchange gifts on Christmas as well. One might be inclined to think that it might be smart to space one's holidays out a little more so as to not have too high of a concentration, but don't worry, their are plenty to go around.

The city holds several parades in honor of Los Reyes, one of which I was lucky enough to be a part of. I headed to Canillas metro stop, which is about 10 stops East and North of me. That's really saying something, as I consider myself located very far East. Of course, I went with a Spanish invitation, without which I would never have known such a parade existed.

And exist it does, and with style. As I watched, I couldn't help but thinking how good these parade-goers had it. Specifically, the kids. Their job, the ones who participated in the parade, was to throw a near unlimited supply of candy to, or sometimes at, the crowd. Almost all of the candy was the same, small, round, colored hard candy wrapped in clear plastic. However, one of the boys on the floats who appeared to be a little older than the others, maybe 12, apparently brought some of his own. His candy was much bigger, and as I watched from several feet back, he cocked back with what appeared to be a Twix-sized object and heaved it directly into the forehead of the woman standing in front of me. For a moment I didn't know how to react, but after a nice me cago en la leche! the woman seemed to be fine.

But I started with how good the parade-goers had it, and I didn't mean to suggest that I think throwing large pieces of candy at people's faces was something that I enjoy or would enjoy. I meant that as a kid, it doesn't get much better than having an important job to do in a cool costume on the top of a giant slow-moving object.

Also interesting to watch were the candy collectors. People of all ages were there, but it seemed that the most aggressive participants were either between the ages of 3 and 6 or 75 and 129. I thought it was a little strange that the 75+ crowd would have such a serious need to get their free candy fix, but later Bea explained to me that her grandmother used to give her all the candy she found at the Reyes parade.